A Most Shocking Revelation Read Online Free PDF Page A

ear. “Tell you what, Val. Odds are I’m going to like you real well. I already do. And my gut tells me nothing’s going to change that. I guarantee it.”
    He felt her frame grow rigid and for a fleeting moment he wondered if it was something he’d said. But he suspected it had more to do with his close proximity. Yet she didn’t move away from him and she didn’t flinch when he kissed her cheek, then on afterthought kissed her sweet-smelling neck.
    And she didn’t slug him when he patted her bottom and told her, “I’m going to take a shower and then we can leave.”
    When he turned away, she stopped him by saying, “You might change your mind about me after a while.”
    He faced Valerie to find her leaning against the sink, wringing a dish towel in her grasp. Striding to her again, he touched her face when he saw the insecurity calling out from her deep blue eyes. “Let me tell you something, Val. I have good instincts about people. And although I don’t pretend to know what’s going on in that pretty head of yours most of the time, I do knowthere’s not a thing you can say that would change my mind about you. You’re definitely someone worth knowing.”
    He brushed a soft kiss across her lips and then left the kitchen before he was tempted to do more.
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    You’re definitely someone worth knowing…
    Gavin’s declaration had haunted Valerie all during the early shift at the diner. Now nearing 2:00 p.m., she continued to think about it and the chaste kiss he’d given her that morning. Think about how she wanted to open up to him. How much she wanted his acceptance. How much she wanted things that she shouldn’t want.
    Pipe dreams, every one.
    She wished for more patrons so she could get her mind off Gavin, but the place was slow at the moment, as it usually was on Friday following the lunchtime crush. Of course, when evening arrived, the crowd would be back in full force, and for that reason, she should enjoy the break.
    After clearing off the last littered table, Valerie walked behind the counter and leaned through the opening to the kitchen. Manny Reno was seated near the stove, reading the paper and gnawing a toothpick like a beaver. A bodybuilding beaver. His arms were as big as the hams he prepared for Sunday dinner, and his chest looked as though it might escape from his T-shirt at any given moment. The other waitresses claimed that at one time he’d been a flirt—basically harmless yet still a flirt—but that was before he’d bought the diner from the former owner, Hazel, and married Sheila, the one-time head waitress. Now he was successful, totally smitten and a father-to-be. His and Sheila’s apparent happiness had only served to remind Valerie how much she wanted that very thing in the future. Maybe not the near future, but eventually. And she wanted it with someone like Gavin O’Neal. Who was she kidding? She wanted it with Gavin O’Neal.
    Forcing her mind back on reality, she tapped the counter to get her boss’s attention. “I need to take tomorrow off, Manny,” she said, then braced for the fallout.
    He glanced up before going back to the sports section. “Okay. Take two days.”
    Although Manny was always fair, that was just too easy considering they were already shorthanded. “Are you feeling okay?”
    â€œI’m feeling great. Sheila can come in and relieve you.”
    â€œI thought you were letting your wife be a lady of leisure, at least until the morning sickness wears off.”
    He grinned without looking up from the paper. “She’s pretty much over that now. In fact, she’s suffering from what she calls ‘raging hormones.’ I like raging hormones real well.”
    Obviously those raging hormones, like the flu, were going around town. Valerie had definitely come down with a strong case of them. “Are you sure she won’t